Grim Chapter for Detroit Ends as Beatty Heads To The PokeyShe went off to jail quietly, with a blank expression, saying nothing to the dozen or so supporters as she left to start serving her sentence in the text message scandal.
To the end, Christine Beatty kept her silence, declining to speak before Wayne Circuit Judge Timothy Kenny, just as she had declined to speak to prosecutors during the past year. They wanted her cooperation to convict her former boss and lover, Kwame Kilpatrick, but she never gave it.
Tuesday's sentencing of Beatty, former Mayor Kilpatrick's chief of staff, marked an end point in a tumultuous scandal that began last January when the Free Press obtained and published their text messages showing that they had lied under oath in court the previous summer. The article led to criminal charges, pledges to fight, political and racial chasms, and on Tuesday -- finally -- an end.
"Now it's my hope," Judge Kenny said while imposing Beatty's sentence, "that this chapter in the city's history will be closed." Ex-Detroit Mayoral Aide Gets 3 Hots and A Cot
After months of battle, with Kilpatrick refusing calls to resign and Beatty in seclusion after quitting her post, both have pleaded guilty to two felonies of obstructing justice. Both now are in jail. Both are serving the same sentence of 120 days.
By Tuesday afternoon, she was processed, photographed and sent off to her own cell, where she has a secured bunk at night. During the day, she will share a common area with other female prisoners. She is housed in the same facility in downtown Detroit as Kilpatrick but on different floors. He is entering his final month there, and is spending 23 hours a day inside an isolated VIP cell for security reasons.
Earlier in court, Beatty looked drawn throughout a hearing that -- at 26 minutes -- was almost startlingly short, given the protracted proceeding of her codefendant, whose case concluded in circus-like fashion Oct. 28. That day, Kilpatrick left for jail after smiling, waving -- even clowning with prosecutors.
About a dozen supporters of Beatty's filed into Kenny's courtroom for the hearing, mainly family and sorority sisters.
When Kenny invited Beatty to speak, she said, only: "No, your honor, thank you."
Kenny lectured her before passing on the sentence.
The case wasn't a Monica Lewinsky-type tale of sexual misdeeds, Kenny said, but a story about perjury and the damage caused to police officers whose careers Kilpatrick and Beatty ruined. The cops won a civil judgment against the pair last year, convincing a jury -- over the pair's perjured testimony -- that they were punished for an investigation that might have exposed Kilpatrick's philandering.
Beatty and Kilpatrick testified that they did not have an affair, and they did not fire one of the police officers. Their text messages said otherwise.
The case, Kenny said, represents "a triumph of truth over political power and might. And it also indicates, I think, that lying under oath in court has a price tag, even for those who are the politically elite."
Beatty likely won't spend as much time in jail as her codefendant. Unlike Kilpatrick, she can earn days off if she works in jail. Mayer Morganroth, one of her attorneys, estimated she could serve as few as 72 days.
Prosecutors wanted Kenny to order an inquiry into Beatty's financial status to ensure she repays the $100,000 in restitution to the city that is part of her plea deal. Assistant Prosecutor Robert Spada revealed Tuesday that Beatty had bought a $4,381 rug under a payment plan and also owes $1,210 a month for a 2008 Range Rover.
Spada also revealed that a presentence investigation determined that she owes more than $726,000 in legal fees. He asked Kenny to order Beatty to turn over recent bank statements and income tax returns.
But Morganroth said Beatty's purchases were made in late 2007, before the scandal. "Her savings account shows $6 and change in it," he said.
Kenny put off making a ruling on the inquiry.
The judge acknowledged receiving 21 letters from supporters, including Kilpatrick ally and former state Supreme Court Justice Conrad Mallett Jr., a handful of college classmates, sorority sisters and her pastor. They described the now-divorced mother of two young girls as intelligent, driven, skillful and compassionate.
Her children also will suffer, the judge noted. The girls will be cared for by grandparents and other family members.
As Beatty left court without saying good-bye, her supporters hugged and shed tears.
"If public officials don't follow laws, who in the world will?" Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy asked afterward about the fall of Beatty and Kilpatrick.
She then cited a Latin axiom that she translated as "corruption of the best is the worst of all."
Worthy declined to say whether Kilpatrick or Beatty could be facing additional charges as part of an ongoing investigation related to the text message scandal. She did say the perjury part of the investigation is over.
The prosecutor also made a surprising disclosure, saying that Kilpatrick lawyers Dan Webb and James Thomas asked in early August for the destruction of all the text messages in Worthy's possession. Worthy did not provide further details.
"I was frankly shocked that some of the former Kilpatrick lawyers would believe I would agree to do such a thing," Worthy said. "This type of behavior got us here in the first place."
A Free Press Freedom of Information Act lawsuit earlier this year unearthed a secret deal Kilpatrick forged in 2007 to keep his text messages secret from the public.
Webb did not return a call seeking comment. Thomas denied that he or Webb ever made such a request of Worthy.
"Unequivocally, no one asked her to destroy text messages, period," Thomas said.
Worthy used search warrants during her probe to obtain more than 625,000 messages sent on city-paid pagers. Those messages could eventually be released under the Freedom of Information Act.
In the meantime, Beatty will serve her time and try to put her life back together, Morganroth said. He described her chances of landing a job as "good, very good."
But even Kenny acknowledged the scars she will carry.
In some respects, Kenny said, Beatty's public humiliation in the scandal will forever brand her with a scarlet letter.
By Detroit Free Press Writer JIM SCHAEFER
To the end, Christine Beatty kept her silence, declining to speak before Wayne Circuit Judge Timothy Kenny, just as she had declined to speak to prosecutors during the past year. They wanted her cooperation to convict her former boss and lover, Kwame Kilpatrick, but she never gave it.
Tuesday's sentencing of Beatty, former Mayor Kilpatrick's chief of staff, marked an end point in a tumultuous scandal that began last January when the Free Press obtained and published their text messages showing that they had lied under oath in court the previous summer. The article led to criminal charges, pledges to fight, political and racial chasms, and on Tuesday -- finally -- an end.
"Now it's my hope," Judge Kenny said while imposing Beatty's sentence, "that this chapter in the city's history will be closed." Ex-Detroit Mayoral Aide Gets 3 Hots and A Cot
After months of battle, with Kilpatrick refusing calls to resign and Beatty in seclusion after quitting her post, both have pleaded guilty to two felonies of obstructing justice. Both now are in jail. Both are serving the same sentence of 120 days.
By Tuesday afternoon, she was processed, photographed and sent off to her own cell, where she has a secured bunk at night. During the day, she will share a common area with other female prisoners. She is housed in the same facility in downtown Detroit as Kilpatrick but on different floors. He is entering his final month there, and is spending 23 hours a day inside an isolated VIP cell for security reasons.
Earlier in court, Beatty looked drawn throughout a hearing that -- at 26 minutes -- was almost startlingly short, given the protracted proceeding of her codefendant, whose case concluded in circus-like fashion Oct. 28. That day, Kilpatrick left for jail after smiling, waving -- even clowning with prosecutors.
About a dozen supporters of Beatty's filed into Kenny's courtroom for the hearing, mainly family and sorority sisters.
When Kenny invited Beatty to speak, she said, only: "No, your honor, thank you."
Kenny lectured her before passing on the sentence.
The case wasn't a Monica Lewinsky-type tale of sexual misdeeds, Kenny said, but a story about perjury and the damage caused to police officers whose careers Kilpatrick and Beatty ruined. The cops won a civil judgment against the pair last year, convincing a jury -- over the pair's perjured testimony -- that they were punished for an investigation that might have exposed Kilpatrick's philandering.
Beatty and Kilpatrick testified that they did not have an affair, and they did not fire one of the police officers. Their text messages said otherwise.
The case, Kenny said, represents "a triumph of truth over political power and might. And it also indicates, I think, that lying under oath in court has a price tag, even for those who are the politically elite."
Beatty likely won't spend as much time in jail as her codefendant. Unlike Kilpatrick, she can earn days off if she works in jail. Mayer Morganroth, one of her attorneys, estimated she could serve as few as 72 days.Prosecutors wanted Kenny to order an inquiry into Beatty's financial status to ensure she repays the $100,000 in restitution to the city that is part of her plea deal. Assistant Prosecutor Robert Spada revealed Tuesday that Beatty had bought a $4,381 rug under a payment plan and also owes $1,210 a month for a 2008 Range Rover.
Spada also revealed that a presentence investigation determined that she owes more than $726,000 in legal fees. He asked Kenny to order Beatty to turn over recent bank statements and income tax returns.
But Morganroth said Beatty's purchases were made in late 2007, before the scandal. "Her savings account shows $6 and change in it," he said.
Kenny put off making a ruling on the inquiry.
The judge acknowledged receiving 21 letters from supporters, including Kilpatrick ally and former state Supreme Court Justice Conrad Mallett Jr., a handful of college classmates, sorority sisters and her pastor. They described the now-divorced mother of two young girls as intelligent, driven, skillful and compassionate.
Her children also will suffer, the judge noted. The girls will be cared for by grandparents and other family members.
As Beatty left court without saying good-bye, her supporters hugged and shed tears.
"If public officials don't follow laws, who in the world will?" Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy asked afterward about the fall of Beatty and Kilpatrick.
She then cited a Latin axiom that she translated as "corruption of the best is the worst of all."
Worthy declined to say whether Kilpatrick or Beatty could be facing additional charges as part of an ongoing investigation related to the text message scandal. She did say the perjury part of the investigation is over.
The prosecutor also made a surprising disclosure, saying that Kilpatrick lawyers Dan Webb and James Thomas asked in early August for the destruction of all the text messages in Worthy's possession. Worthy did not provide further details.
"I was frankly shocked that some of the former Kilpatrick lawyers would believe I would agree to do such a thing," Worthy said. "This type of behavior got us here in the first place."
A Free Press Freedom of Information Act lawsuit earlier this year unearthed a secret deal Kilpatrick forged in 2007 to keep his text messages secret from the public.
Webb did not return a call seeking comment. Thomas denied that he or Webb ever made such a request of Worthy.
"Unequivocally, no one asked her to destroy text messages, period," Thomas said.
Worthy used search warrants during her probe to obtain more than 625,000 messages sent on city-paid pagers. Those messages could eventually be released under the Freedom of Information Act.
In the meantime, Beatty will serve her time and try to put her life back together, Morganroth said. He described her chances of landing a job as "good, very good."
But even Kenny acknowledged the scars she will carry.
In some respects, Kenny said, Beatty's public humiliation in the scandal will forever brand her with a scarlet letter.
By Detroit Free Press Writer JIM SCHAEFER